Love and Theft celebrated its first No. 1 “Angel Eyes,” the first single from the duo’s self-titled RCA Nashville album, at ASCAP yesterday (9/25).

The ceremony also marked the first No. 1 for co-writer (and band member) Eric Gunderson, who penned the song with Eric Paslay and Jeff Coplan. For Paslay, it marked a rare triple-play achievement for landing 3 No. 1 songs in one calendar year (“Even if it Breaks Your Heart,” and “Barefoot Blue Jean Night”).

“Paslay started as an intern for us,” said Cal IV’s Daniel Hill. “He’s been doing a pretty good job.”

“[ASCAP] was the second building I walked in to on Music Row 10 years ago,” said Paslay. “This 29^th year of my life has been life changing.”

“I have been up here for a few awards, and I have had it stop for a while,” said producer Josh Leo. “It feels great to be up here again.”

EMI Publishing’s Josh Van Valkenburg shared sentimental stories of the two band members.

“Thank you Stephen [Barker],” said Gunderson of his band member. “He has been my partner in crime. Sometimes literally.”

“It has been a long road for us and we stuck it out together,” said a tearful Barker. “Jim Catino wanted to sign us before we went to Lyric Street. So, thank you for your willingness to sign us again.”

“I think of these two guys as sons,” said songwriter Robert Ellis Orrall, who offered plaques and sentiments to the band from Rockapop Music.

Bill Mayne presented No. 1 trophies from the CRB, Lon Helton offered plaques from Country Aircheck, and Brandi Simms bestowed the new CMA medallions.

Rodeowave Entertainment has announced the addition of promotion veteran Jennifer Shaffer to the staff, where she will be responsible for handling an unspecified territory and additional marketing duties for artists Phil Vassar, Miss Willie Brown, and High Valley.

“The Rodeowave Entertainment team feels very fortunate to have such an accomplished music industry veteran such as Jennifer join us,” said Rodeowave General Manager Teddi Bonadies.

Shaffer was most recently a Southeast regional promotion manager for Warner Music Nashville’s W.A.R. promo team. The Fairmont, WV, native graduated from James Madison University and began her career at Sony Music Nashville in 1993. Her resume also includes time at Atlantic, Warner Bros. Nashville, MCA Nashville, Lyric Street, and Columbia Records.

Her first day on the job will be October 1, 2012. Congratulate her here.

A bill introduced to Congress Friday (9/21) is designed to put streaming radio royalty rates in line with satellite radio royalty rates. Under the Internet Radio Fairness Act, a panel of federal judges would set rates, which would likely lead to lower rates for Pandora, iHeartRadio, Slacker and similar non-interactive online radio services.

Under current circumstances, a high percentage of company income goes to pay artist and songwriter royalties. These royalty rates are based on individual song plays, and though they are fractions of a cent, can add up very quickly to large sums. In Pandora’s case, the artists’ share alone cost the service half of last year’s revenue, according to CEO Tim Westergren.

By comparison, SiriusXM pays about 8 percent of its revenue for artist performance royalties.

Terrestrial radio stations only pay songwriters and publishers, not artists. The recent exception to this rule is the deals made by Big Machine Label Group with terrestrial radio broadcasters Clear Channel and Entercom. The model has BMLG and its artists being paid terrestrial performance royalties in exchange for a lower rate for digital performance royalties, which will distribute the royalty cost more evenly between both kinds of radio.

The Internet Radio Fairness Act was introduced in the House by Jason Chaffetz (Rep.-Utah), and Jared Polis (Dem.- Col.), and in the Senate by Ron Wyden (Dem.-Oregon).

More from the New York Times.

As you read this the National Association of Broadcasters/Radio Advertising Bureau meeting in Dallas is wrapping up. I am writing this before the conference starts. You should search the “Gore-net” to get information about panels and news that comes out of the meeting.

There is usually something earth-shattering that happens. Companies get sold, managers change positions and policies are set for the upcoming year.

One of the pressing issues this year is sure to be the online portion of the broadcast business. Just this week CCME head honcho Robert Pittman pushed for more cooperation between the radio broadcast business and the record companies.

Mr. Pittman is the leader in both partnering with record companies and moving assets to online so he has a vested interest in seeing others come aboard.

I have said in the space many times that I consider Mr. Pittman an unequaled visionary in this area. I just wish I could see what he sees. Remember that he once ran Century 21 so I suspect that he is living by the mantra of location, location, location.

He appears to be collecting all of the real estate online.

A couple of other pieces of information came out this week that can impact broadcaster’s plans. The best news is that, despite all of the competition from Pandora, Spotify and the like, radio is still used each week by 93% of all Americans. Those numbers have not moved up or down for many years now and those of us who make a living in radio are out there searching for that 7%.

The other good news, and something that Mr. Pittman saw early on, is that the online services that are growing are the ones with unique content. IHeartRadio has the best of both worlds. You can build your own “personalized” radio or go to any of the hundreds of radio stations available through the service. The hundreds of online stations offer, by its nature, unique content.

A record company head admitted to me that the record business model is broken (not news to anyone) and that radio is looked at as the salvation. Not getting music played on the radio, but collecting fees and taxes from broadcasters.

The problem is something Mr. Pittman knows. There is little money there. Why would anyone believe that radio is the only business that has not been impacted by the economic downturn? Believe me there is not enough money for radio to float records.

I would think that the finding the most vehicles for getting your product out to the public should be the goal. Giving broadcasters pause over whether they should be streaming doesn’t seem to be the right plan.

Whatever. People much smarter than me are going to figure this out and hopefully everyone will make some money. That is my only concern. I know firsthand.

I own a couple of businesses and one of them is not making any money. In fact it is losing money every month. I really don’t like getting that statement from Bank of America.

I don’t know one radio company making enough money online to support another industry.

I don’t know the particulars of the deal that Mr. Pittman cut with BMLG President Scott Borchetta but these partnerships will always be a good idea if it creates commerce.

Mr. Borchetta gets the vehicle to expose his product and Mr. Pittman gets a head start with important product. Clear Channel stations heartily supported Taylor Swift’s single, “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together.” It is tough to tell how much impact this had on Ms. Swift’s single. Ms. Swift can sell huge numbers of downloads singing the Nashville phone book. Her following is loyal and deservedly so. She has delivered more than Octomom over the last 5 years.

This is the kind of relationship that works for both records and broadcasters. Not one that either side feels pinched to participate in.

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of MusicRow.)